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Incubi
Appearance: Incubi are one of the most physically varied races of Nyxheim. While it is a fact that they are all symmetrical, with flawless skin, alluring features and generally outstandingly beautiful, barely any features are specific to them. The colours of their eyes, skins, and hair, their type of ears, their height and any other physical characteristic you can think of could be that of any other race. Nevertheless we can still point out a couple of things they all share: -Androgyny: Succubae or incubi... their beauty encompasses all that’s best of dark and light, of male and female. They tend to be androgynous and could easily confuse any outside their race to think them of the opposite gender. Even their seductive voices could be genderless. This physical trait is more marked on their visages rather than their bodies, but enables them to seduce with ease regardless of the sexual orientation of their victims, -Athletic Bodies: Their physical temple steadfastly holds to the limber shape of the acrobatic and the vigorous might of dancers. They have well toned muscles that suit their slender frames, and a flexibility that can only be rivalled by the most skilled gymnasts, all without having to train. They have no body hair, and even the males grow no facial hair save on the eyebrows and the lashes. -The Marks: Rarely would an incubus show the three marks that prove their race’s existence: the claws, the two horns, and the forked tail. All of them are midnight black, and only in secret gatherings and rituals of their kind do they expose them. The claws are sharp and long, able to serve for combat. The two horns that protrude from their heads tell by their size the approximate age of the incubus. Finally, the tail tends to almost match the incubus’ height. It is thin and swift, and on its end there is a triangular stinger; it is hidden beneath the flesh of their backs. When incubi activate the three marks, their fangs tend to grow just as their nails, and their horns erupt while their tails tear a whole in their lower back and then slide out from there, as it would be impractical and more painful to tear across the whole back instead. Abilities: -Amour: Empathy would be the best word to describe Amour. It is the power to know their prey, their feelings, their desires, their thoughts, and sometimes even the depths of their hearts. With ease and at some distance they are able to tell which emotions you are feeling, and when they touch you, this insight grows even stronger. It is at a maximum during copulation. During sex is when they are able to read thoughts and penetrate deep into dark corners of your heart to know things that might even be secret to yourself. The union made during copulation not only allows an incubus to know your mind but also to manipulate it. They plant seeds of ideas and emotions inside you to twist your mind. Most of the incubi need to repeatedly mate with their victims to make those seeds grow, but the very powerful ones can make you believe an entirely different perspective of the world with just a one night stand. - Ardeur: Passion and fire, Ardeur is the power to seduce and charm. Its main manifestations are in the voice, the eyes, the touch, and the scent of the incubi. Their voices and their eyes are hypnotic; their orbs lure the preys to be lost in their depth while their voices are to the ears what silk is to the skin. The more you hear them, the stronger their power over you grows. Their scent is a drug, and the more aroused the incubus gets the more intoxicating it becomes, causing a melange of excitement, arousal, and light-headedness. Their movements are sensual, their touch enticing. Their saliva, sweat and nectars are strong aphrodisiacs. These are all passive abilities, always present since the incubi cannot “switch them off”. It could be said that incubi are a drug, the more you expose yourself to them the more addicted you become. They make you passionate, obsessive, and they could make you lose yourself. Incubi combine Ardeur with Amour to ensnare their victims and turn them into puppets, slaves of love. - Amortir: To deaden and to steal is the purpose of Amortir. An incubus’ eternal youth is stolen vitality, which in turns make the poor victims age faster. Instead of eating food, incubi may also choose to feed on strong emotions others around them might be feeling. They can siphon wrath, love, hate, fear and others of that kind from a distance, but just like most of their powers, it is easier and stronger when there is physical contact. Yet the most dreadful aspect of Amortir is the ability to rob others of their beauty. For example, when an incubus craves for the eyes of a person, they would seduce and sleep with them. The day after, the incubus will wake with his prize and the prey would wake blind and with withered eyes. This ability accounts for the diversity and the unmatchable beauty of the race. - The Marks: Of course the three black marks also have their uses. The claws are sharp and long enough to tear through flesh, and incubi have also hit others with their horns to stab them or knock them down. However, when it comes to physical combat the incubus’ deadliest weapon is the tail, which can extend to be twice their body size and can pierce a body with remarkable precision and speed. They also have an unbelievable control over it; they can use it to pick things and some of them even use it as a whip. Diet: Incubi do not follow a specific diet, and they often adapt it to the societies they live in. Nevertheless, they are known to be gourmet, because eating is a pleasure. An incubus would prefer not to eat at all if he does not consider the meal delicious. They enjoy alcoholic beverages and through Amortir they also delight themselves by feeding on emotions. Emotions & Health: One very important factor we need to understand before we proceed is that feelings play an extremely important role in the life of an incubus. As they age, the intensity with which their emotions strike grows stronger to the point they become real and have tangible symptoms. For example, when incubi fall into depression, their skin turns pale, their body frail and weak, and they begin to cough blood. Should they be unable to vanquish this evil quickly, it leads to their untimely death. Uncontrolled rage may turn into a burning fever and lovelorn may turn into a glass splinters working their way into their hearts. It is not their imagination, it not just their minds. Emotions materialize; they become hurtful inside them and rip them apart. Theoretically, incubi could be immortal if they could find away to stop emotions from eroding them. But those who have tried to control their feelings, to quench them, to silence them, have suffered horrible deaths. Those who attempt to mitigate the emotions, to bury them, to hold them back... are building walls to control an impending flood. But the waters will always rise. The pressure will always become stronger. Until the incubus finally understand that the pain they have been feeling, the struggle they have endured for so long, that empty void they have tried to create to keep emotions away, is just another emotion that has been tearing them from the inside; emptiness, fear, loneliness. They suddenly feel that all the centuries in the world are not worth a day of the pain that is torturing them. They have been exhausted for so long, their legs weak and hurting, their arms painful to move, their heads aching, every single cell screaming, as if they had worked their body to their limit, as if they hadn’t slept for a century. They finally realized that they are not cheating death; they instead suffered a fate worse than dying a thousand times over and didn't even get to live a single life, for fearing death. And thus the dam breaks, and the sea swallows them. When an incubus dies due to his emotions, that fate is called the Black Rose. There is however another fate which is far more common, the Red Rose. Most incubi prefer to live short but exciting lives surrounded by many delights. As the years pass, they grow a little mad due to the intense emotions and get involved in dangerous plots or adventures. The thrill of continuously dancing with death eventually rewards them with bloody finales. These violent ends along with the suicides are referred to as the Red Rose, and they are an escape from the Black Rose, a fate which few dare to face. Life Cycle Only when an incubus and a succubus mate is an incubus born. A succubus could bare the child of another race and an incubus could impregnate a female of another race by having sex with the opposite gender to acquire the genetic information necessary, but the child would have no inheritance what so ever from the incubus or succubus. Therefore, there can be no hybrids. The life cycle of incubi consists of three stages: Childhood (Birth – 20): Contrary to popular belief, incubi are born genderless. Somewhere during this first stage they will identify more with one of their parental figures, whether the mother or the father, and in trying to mimic them they will assume their first gender. Sometimes, an older brother or sister, or another mature incubus to whom they are exposed becomes this hero figure. Children rarely get sick because they are nurtured with much care, and they are known to be extremely curious about everything, especially people. Since childhood covers a period of twenty years, do not be fooled by their looks, they can be very cunning. Adolescence (20-40): Once a strong sexual drive is awakened, adolescence is said to have begun. During this period incubi tend to explore themselves by exploring with other people their own likes and interests. It is at this stage that they forge their personality, build their character, and shape their individuality. As they are trying to find their singularity, they often shift of gender, sexual partners, and friends. Adolescence has a high mortality rate, because they start to feel strong emotions and begin to learn how to handle them. Maturity (40 -100): An incubus is said to have reached maturity when they finally have a solid personality. It is here that the distinction between succubae and incubi is done, even though they are not treated differently. Gender changing also stops here, not because they lose their ability but because it leads to psychological traumas and problems. Theoretically, an incubus or succubus that changes gender once he/she reaches maturity dooes not have a stable personality and will likely meet an early death. They are seen by their race as insecure and frail. The great majority of the incubi do not live to be 100. Behavioural traits: Incubi are known to be hedonists. These slaves of sensation are always consumed and consuming in seething desire. They are very liberal, especially when it comes to sexuality and tend to have sex regularly, often collecting people as trophies. Their personalities are obsessive and addictive, and they fancy drugs and alcohol. Consciously and sometimes unconsciously, they tend to charm others with their unique and alluring personalities. Society: Habitat and Architecture: Unlike other races, the incubi do not have a government or habitat of their own. Ever since they can remember, they have infiltrated other societies and adapted to them. They gather where the largest civilizations can be found, where large amounts of wealth are concentrated, in big and sleepless cities. Social groups frequented by incubi are those related to the arts, nightlife, and opulence. Industry: Manual labour, science, business and all those boring professions are disliked by the incubi. Instead, this majestic race produces musicians, dancers, painters, sculptors, poets, actors, and other geniuses of the arts. They are in love above all with beauty, prisoners of their artistic visions and sensitivity. Incubi also favour positions in politics, and they do well due to their charm and charisma. Politics offers them power and a way to spread their liberal ideas. It also offers them wealth, the second thing they love the most. Truth be told, if an incubus is not living in luxury he is probably travelling with a theatre, some musicians, or any kind of artistic group. Another job which they tend to fancy is that of spy since their abilities suit it perfectly and the danger attracts them. Social Structure Anarchy is the only way to describe their organization. While no one is considered to be the ruler of the race or to possess any authority over it, some incubi families are more respected than others. These families’ lineages can be traced hundreds and sometimes even thousands of years back in history, and they are renowned for producing offspring with powerful blood (strong in the incubi ways of Amour, Amortir, and Ardeur) or that have attainted remarkable accomplishments. At the time, the Solidor family is considered the highest authority among incubi due to the fact that they have the oldest incubi alive and they have managed to keep control of Malekith for a couple of centuries. Family Life Given the fact that an incubus’ reputation is greatly determined by their family name, it is no surprise that family does play an important role in their lives. Parents are often concerned about increasing or at least maintaining the honour of their name, so the children are nurtured most carefully. During their adolescence, incubi are very frail and if their parents did an awful job during their childhood, they would most likely not survive to maturity. That in turn would bring down their reputation for being unable to raise a child properly. Once a child reaches maturity, the outcome of the family can vary. Some remain together and support each other, some have a couple of members leave but endure, and others break down completely and each continues their own path. According to an incubus’ ethics, the responsibility owed to the families comes to an end when the children are grown. After that, every relation may be dissolved, and remaining together is a personal choice of each member that can depend on many things such as economic reasons, emotional stability, common interests, etc. It is not common for any mature incubus with ties to any youngling to abandon a family, and this does not reduce itself to just the parents but also to the older brothers and sisters, and any other figure a child has grown attached to. Note however that leaving after one’s responsibilities are fulfilled is not considered wrong, and any grudge held against a member that leaves is not justified. Finally, with families that do stick together, incest is relatively common. Incubi do not make a separation of “maternal love”, “paternal love”, “brotherly love”, or even “loving as a friend”. They simply love, and if the object of said affection is charming enough, they would want to express their love physically. Such relationships are not considered by them morally problematic although the societies in which the live in often deem it twisted and sick. As a matter of fact, some proud families encourage incest to maintain the purity of the bloodline. Since incubi biology is different from that of humans, the bloodline does maintain itself strong and pure instead of producing crippled offspring. Needless to say is that these types of relations may carry an extra risk of emotional disturbance if things go wrong. Education: Incubi children tend to receive outstanding educations. They learn more about the arts, culture, history and fine living than about sciences, although they do receive good bases on that too. Parents play the role of main educators, and what they often do is have them receive the same education as the other children in society, whether it is by sending them to the same institutions or by hiring a teacher, and then complimenting that with their own life styles and knowledge. Needless to say is that they teach their children critical reasoning, to question their teachers and to think for themselves. Culture & Arts: A culture of secrecy has been created by the incubi, because if everyone knew all their secrets, they would get a very bad fame and could be persecuted and hated. Living would then become much more difficult. For that reason, most people that have incubi friends never come to know it. Their race is considered a legend, because it is generally believed that you would have a higher probability of being struck by lightning than seeing one. Because they are always depicted in their true forms, people are convinced that incubi are a form of beautiful demons with tails and horns that seduce and kill their victims by either sneaking into their bedrooms while they dream or when they find them alone in the streets. That legend was first created by humans, but incubi have helped keep it alive. After all, as long as the fools believe the only thing to fear is horned beasts, then they are safe. A cultural event called symposium is very famous among incubi. They are usually hosted by the very wealthy among their ranks and it is a gathering where all incubi are welcome to come and feast freely for days. The purpose of these symposiums is pleasure yes, but also networking. Incubi enjoy being amongst their kind and this event is the main opportunity to meet others, because they are few in numbers and it is hard to find others in such a large world. In these parties, their main cultural hobby can be seen in all its majesty, gossiping. Symposiums are a good example of how secretive incubi are, because within them only the very powerful incubi dare bring their beloveds if they are of another race. Why? Because other incubi will attempt to seduce and test the beloved, and if the control the lover has over him is not strong enough and the other incubi find out that he has spilled secrets of their race, the host of the symposium may authorize his demise or any other fate he might find pleasure in. The incubus race has produced a myriad of important figures in the literary arts, performing arts, and visual arts. Nevertheless, they do not have a “racial style” because they have always blended with the styles of other races, partly because of their secrecy. In other words, incubi have contributed to the advancements of the arts and culture but not created a niche under their name. However, common traits have been found in many of their works of arts such as a dark tone, a tendency to break with the accepted standards of society, a tendency to overwhelm, and recurring themes such as stirred emotions, sin, sensuality, blood, and death. Language: Incubi always speak at least two languages, Noldorin and the language of whatever society they are living in. Noldorin is an ancient language that demons also speak and it has evolved throughout the years. Currently, the Noldorin of the incubi is different from the one of the demons, but they are mutually intelligible. The incubi’s version of Noldorin has been influenced by the societies they have been infiltrating while the one of the demons has remained purer. There was a very old tradition of having the first name of their children end in “ian”, “an” or “anne”, such as “Luanne” and “Carian” but few follow nowadays. The two customs that have remained strong are giving three names to their offspring, and making them rather androgynous names, especially the first one such as “Alex” and “Jesse”. Religion: Religion is probably the most hated thing by incubi because it usually goes hand by hand with strict ethics. They believe it imprisons the minds of people, makes them dull, annoying, and kills their creativity. Their life philosophy and spirituality consist of Carpe Diem, enjoying each day and night until they die. Liberty is also much treasured, which is why they are often powerful voices in favour of democracy and rights. Immigration & Emigration: The great majority of the incubi population lives in big cities and metropolises, and they are perfectly assimilated. History: According to the myth passed down from generation to generation, the first incubus was actually a demon that was so beautiful, that a High Deity fell in love with him. Unaware that the dazzling beauty that spent the night with him was a divinity, he attempted to consume it. So the deity cursed his blood for loving to hunt with the beauty of love, and within him were unleashed all the worldly passion that he could never banish. Incubi were cursed to die with a kiss or with a sword, with many tears or on a pool of blood. Some say it was Arcadia’s God of the Sun, and others say it was the Forgotten Goddess of Celestia. Either way, it’s just a myth, right? The first officially recorded history of the incubi was by the Angels of the Sacred Empire in Arcadia, who banished them from Silim. This exodus is the oldest event still living in their cultural memory.